Linear alpha olefins generally are important petrochemicals having a variety of uses. These chemicals have the general chemical formula CxH2x and have a primary use as co-monomers for producing various polymers including polyethylene. Generally, linear alpha olefins are different from other mono olefins having a similar chemical formula, and these differences include linearity of the carbon chain and position of the double bond at the alpha position of the carbon chain in contrast to branched carbon chains and a double bond located at a beta-gamma position or higher of other mono olefins.
There are numerous processes for producing a variety of linear alpha olefins including ethylene oligomerization processes. Generally, existing processes for ethylene oligomerization are solution-based processes that operate in a liquid phase using a soluble catalyst system and do not depend on a solid catalyst. Some of these processes can include oligomerization processes such as Axens AlphaButol® process, Axens AlphaHexol™ process, Sasol's 1-octene process, and Shell's 1-butene process. These and other processes for producing linear alpha olefins may have problems associated with formation of undesired polymeric material that cause reactor fouling. Fouling can result in reactor shutdown for a cleanup, resulting in a loss of production and an increase of production costs. Additionally, various processes for production of alpha olefins use expensive catalysts to achieve high selectivity for certain reaction products, such as 1-hexene and 1-octene. These expensive catalysts often are unrecoverable and can be continuously discarded and disposed of during product recovery phases of production.